Shout Out to the 4 Nations Face-Off

 OK let me start off here by saying that I haven't watched basically any hockey this entire season. I don't know who the best players in the league are anymore except for the biggest names and I couldn't tell you who's doing well and who isn't. That being said, when I saw the NHL was doing a mini tournament between 4 countries in lieu of an all-star game, I was intrigued. I watched Canada vs Sweden yesterday in the first game of the round robin portion of the tournament and I came out of the experience hyped to watch more. With that in mind, I am going to talk about this from the perspective of someone who is a total hockey casual. If you want detailed analysis on the game, this is not the place! 

The NHL and NBA's all star break is at the same time., this season with both leagues trying something new in an attempt to make the game more interesting. In each sport, the All-Star game itself has traditionally sucked. In the NBA it's usually a 240-225 final score with guys jogging up and down the court taking circus shots for fun. It's rarely interesting or competitive and the best players treat it as a joke. As a result, I've recently just stopped watching the All-Star game in the NBA all together, it's just not exciting to me. This season the NBA is trying out a format where they break the all stars off into 3 teams and have a 4th team full of "rising stars" competing in a tournament. I think this won't solve the problem of the players not caring about the game because why would they? Whether they win or lose this tournament nobody is going to remember it by the next week, they aren't going to gain anything for their legacies and the financial incentive is dwarfed by the incentive to not get injured. Maybe I'm wrong and the guys will feel pride playing for team Shaq or team Chuck, but I am not holding my breath for that one. 

In my hating on the NBA's new all star format, I came across an article explaining the NHL's idea. The league would take the best NHL players from Canada, Sweden, USA and Finland and have them face off in a mid-season tournament. As soon as I heard this I felt it was the best idea for an All-Star game replacement I could possibly imagine. I actually went out of my way to make plans to watch Canada vs USA hockey rather than the NBA skills competition taking place on the same night, despite the fact that I watch the NBA over the NHL all throughout the season. Still, as a casual, my excitement came mostly from a place of naivety. I didn't really know what the player or fan reaction to the idea was I just thought: "cool a chance to cheer for Canada!" Upon looking at the fan reaction online, I realized people had mixed feelings. One thing that sucks is that it leaves out some star players from the countries not participating. While this might weigh on legacy discussions, I think the tradeoff is worth it to have games that feel more meaningful. The other thought from fans was that the players aren't going to take this seriously just like an All-Star game so why drag it out? That concern had to have been squashed immediately after Canada and Sweden delivered an absolute classic of a hockey game. If people had doubts before, they must be completely squashed now. 

Onto the game itself. With the Raptors getting pummeled by the far superior Cavaliers, I decided to switch over to Canada vs Sweden to check it out. I had already missed the goal that had Canada hockey fans excited, a power play connection from Nathan McKinnon from Sidney Crosby. I got to jump with excitement seeing Brad Marchand of all players score Canada's second goal in the first period. Even as a casual I follow the Leafs in the playoffs, which tends to lead to a healthy hatred for Brad Marchand. When he's scoring goals on your team though? Lets go! Sweden made it a game in the second period netting a goal early but Canada answered to take a 3-1 lead into the 3rd. The third period was electric. Sweden scored 2 straight goals to tie the game up and what followed was a super intense back and fourth. Canada committed a high stick penalty with time running down and were going to have to kill a 2 minute power play for the Swedes. It was cool seeing the team lock in and get the job done beautifully escaping this prime opportunity for Sweden to take the lead. Eventually the game went to overtime. 3 on 3 overtime for 10 minutes with some of the best players in the world on the ice is probably the most exciting thing that could happen in any sport. The two teams traded fast breaks back and fourth with each goalie making huge saves to keep their team's hopes alive. I don't even know half the Canadian players and I was literally on my feet pacing nervously throughout the entire OT. With about 3 minutes left Toronto Maple Leaf Mitch Marner potted the game winner off Crosby's 3rd assist of the game. I screamed LETS GO at the top of my lungs and knew right then that I am marking every Canada game on my calendar at this point. 

Aside from how exciting the game was, the crowd in Montreal was electric. Every time Canada needed a boost, they got loud. In the overtime period when Crosby hit the ice the entire stadium chanted CROSBY CROSBY CROSBY in unison. The players were throwing big hits, skating hard after the puck and showing emotion after every goal. It became clear from the puck drop that the players and fans all genuinely cared about the result of these games, in an "all-star" format what more can you ask for? The NHL is one of the only leagues you can viably have 4 countries with enough high quality players to make 4 fairly even teams, I am so glad they saw this and took the opportunity. 

And that's that! I am so in on this tournament and will be now heart broken if Canada gets knocked out. At a time in the world and Canada where there's a lot of uneasiness, it'll be really cool to be able to hold down our title as the best hockey nation. Seeing the support from the fans in Montreal tells me that a lot of Canadians are feeling the same way. I will be consuming beers while I watch Canada take on USA on Saturday in a game I'm beyond excited for. For the rest of the weekend, GO CANADA!